Support pads are used in a wide variety of applications to provide cushioned support to an injured or otherwise sensitive bodily appendage. Such pads have the dual purpose of (1) providing orthopedic support to the appendage and (2) protecting the appendage from further injury or damage resulting from contact with a foreign object or hard surface.
One common use of a support pad is a cushioned pad in specialized bracing, supports or footwear such as soft boots or patient walkers. These pads employ a soft, resilient material, such as foam, to provide cushioned support of a sensitive or damaged foot.
A particular problem arises when it becomes necessary to provide uneven support across the outer surface of an appendage. Some bracing requires padding about a knee recently operated on with incision sites including sutures. While support is required for the brace, it is difficult to adapt and place pads over sensitive areas of a user's skin and incision sites. Complications may arise when it is desired to secure pads in combination with straps and bracing components such as shells.
In another example, an ulcerated appendage, often found in diabetic patients, requires pressure relief to the ulcerated area to allow healing. It is desirable to have a pad to apply cushioned support to the appendage, while refraining from supporting the afflicted area. For diabetic patients, the feet are commonly beset with such ulcerations, and it is therefore desirable to provide a cushioned support sole for a shoe or walker capable of providing zones of pressure relief.
Many solutions exist for providing pressure relief in padding, and such examples include padding having removable resilient inserts in a padding assembly relating to orthopedic devices. An example is found in U.S. Pat. RE40,363 describing removable sections held in place by pressure sensitive adhesive or hooks and loop type securing material to permit removal and replacement of the sections. The removable sections have a grid like configuration, and may cover most or substantially all of the inner padding, or may cover selected important areas corresponding to a user's anatomy. The removable sections may have various densities so a user may arrange denser sections to provide additional cushioning in selected areas of the padding.
Another example is found in U.S. patent application publication 2014/0058303 which describes a similar padding assembly found in U.S. Pat. RE 40,363 including removable sections that are reconfigurable to provide areas of pressure relief or removable sections that maintain permanent areas of pressure relief with varying heights.
With the above examples, they define complicated structures that result in expensive padding assemblies including various layers, and structures enabling reconfiguration of the removable sections. Because the bracing or support may be only temporary, especially while a user is healing, it is often unnecessary to provide a user an expensive padding assembly. Rather, it is important to provide a padding assembly that does not significantly add to the cost of an orthopedic device, while still achieving the intent of enabling pressure relief.
The above examples are described in combination with fixed structures of an orthopedic device, such as an orthopedic leg walker in U.S. Pat. RE40,363 or cuffs in a post-operative knee brace in U.S. patent application publication 2014/0058303. Instances arise in orthopedic devices requiring adaptability of a strap and movability of a shell for combination with a padding assembly. The known examples lack the versatility of a padding assembly including a rigid or substantially rigid shell adjustable with the padding itself.
From an overall standpoint, a principal object of the disclosure is to provide a comfortable padding assembly that may conveniently be placed over a user's anatomy and modified to enable pressure relief over areas of the user's anatomy. Another object is to furnish a padding assembly that includes disposable and replaceable padding for use during treatment.